Why This Is Noise: A pre-trial text exchange with no legal ruling attached. The trial continues, no claims have changed, and no outcome affecting the AI industry has been decided.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk texted OpenAI President Greg Brockman on April 25 to gauge settlement interest, two days before trial began in Oakland federal court
- When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims, Musk replied: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America.”
- OpenAI’s lawyers argue the message proves Musk’s “motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals”
- Judge Gonzalez Rogers denied OpenAI’s request to admit the message as evidence, ruling it should have been submitted during Musk’s testimony
- Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages and the removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from OpenAI’s leadership
Elon Musk reached out to OpenAI President Greg Brockman about a possible settlement two days before their federal trial began, then threatened that Brockman and CEO Sam Altman would become “the most hated men in America” when Brockman proposed dropping all claims, according to a court filing submitted Sunday by OpenAI.
The exchange, made via text on April 25, surfaced as the trial entered its second week in Oakland, California, before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. OpenAI’s attorneys filed an application seeking to introduce the message as evidence of Musk’s motive, arguing it shows the lawsuit is a competitive attack rather than a principled legal claim.
“It tends to prove motive and bias, and, in particular, that Mr. Musk’s motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals,” the filing states.
Motivated by jealousy, regret for walking away from OpenAI and a desire to derail a competing AI company, Elon has spent years harassing OpenAI through baseless lawsuits and public attacks. — OpenAI, company statement
Judge Gonzalez Rogers denied the request, ruling that OpenAI’s attorneys should have submitted the message during Musk’s testimony last week. OpenAI instead plans to elicit testimony about it from Brockman while he is on the stand, without introducing a screenshot of the exchange directly.
Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman in 2024, alleging the company abandoned its founding nonprofit mission by shifting to a for-profit structure that enriched its leaders and principal investor Microsoft. He is seeking $150 billion in damages and the removal of both Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles. OpenAI has called the claims “baseless.”
OpenAI’s filing draws an explicit parallel to Pampena v. Musk, the Twitter shareholder lawsuit in which a California jury found Musk liable in March for misleading investors. In that case, a judge allowed jurors to hear that Musk’s lawyers had warned Twitter’s legal team it would be “World War III until the end of time for real” during settlement talks. OpenAI is asking Judge Gonzalez Rogers to apply the same reasoning to the Brockman text.
Musk spent three days on the witness stand last week, repeatedly accusing Altman and Brockman of trying to “steal a charity.” He also confirmed under questioning that xAI used distillation techniques on OpenAI models to help train Grok, calling it a general industry practice. Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are expected to testify later this month.
The trial is expected to run three weeks, with a verdict possible by mid-May. Proceedings resume today in Oakland and are being live streamed on YouTube.
